Death Cuts Sharper than Knives
by giverofgrace
Summary: Part 1 of 'Life Lived' Series. Before 'Caught in the Act'. For those of you who wondered what exactly happened to Alex and how Scorpia entered his life once again.
1. Prologue

Death Cuts Sharper than Knives

Prologue

"Agent Rider. Agent Daniels. The two of you will be going and infiltrating Scorpia and gathering information about their next plan of attack. It is crucial that we stay ahead of them in this matter and are one step ahead of them. This will be an easy mission, just surveillance. No danger involved. Here are your mission files. You leave tomorrow. Study your character and adapt to the situations. Find out as much as you can. You are dismissed."

With those emotionless words, Mr. Blunt sealed the fate of Alex and Ben.

Even as they got ready for their mission and even as they departed their respective households, higher forces were at work, planning something similar to hell.

As Ben and Alex spent their time discovering bits and pieces of this plan, they didn't understand how much this mission would send their lives spiraling away from them.

They began to get a deeper understanding of this, just as things got too dangerous for them to stay and just as they were pulling out.

The people who knew them would be forever changed through what happened to the pair next.


	2. Plan Gone Wrong

Sorry about the delay, but I just got my power back on after 7 days with no electricity, so this is my first chance to continue the story.

Chapter 1: Plan gone wrong

Alex Rider was in his room, packing. After so long of living a lie, it felt good to go home again and be able to be himself.

He and Ben Daniels had been undercover in Scorpia for three months, gathering information. Of course, snooping around gathering info does not always go unnoticed, which was why they were pulling out. Scorpia was suspicious that they had a spy in their midst and had started searching and upping security levels.

Luckily, Alex and Ben had gathered enough information and Mr. Blunt decided to be reasonable for once and allow them to pull out. Alex was sure he only said that because he had another mission in mind for the two of them.

Ever since that one mission with the Snakehead where he and Ben worked together, Blunt had seen what a great pair the two made, and had sent them on almost every other mission together for the past two years.

Alex surveyed everything that was sprawled across the twin bed and sighed. He really hated packing up. Nothing ever fit the way it did when you first packed. Alex wondered if Ben was having the same issue of not being able to fit everything in his room where he was also packing.

Alex sighed once again, and decided to try cramming. It always works, doesn't it?

'Nope', Alex told himself as he started pulling stuff out of his suitcase once more. 'Maybe if I actually fold the clothes, it will work better…..Nah.'

As he was debating what to do next, a knock resounded on his door.

As he opened it, he was careful to block the guard's view of his messy bed.

"Can I help you?" Alex inquired of the guard.

"Yes. Would you please come with me? Someone wants to have a chat with you. "

"Umm…Now?" Alex asked unsurely. He had been questioned many times by people trying to figure out who was spying, but he had always just gotten a text telling him where to be and when. They never sent an armed guard to collect him. Apprehension started creeping in.

"Yes. Now. Is that a problem?"

"No, but can I do something really quick?" Alex asked, desperate. On the off chance that he had been found out, or that this might take a while, he needed to be able to leave Ben a note telling explaining things. If he didn't, Ben would come to his room, see the empty room and unpacked bags, and assume the worst. 'Well, his assumptions might be right…NO! I mustn't think of that!'

"No. Sorry but vital information has surfaced about this spy, and all people in positions of power must attend this meeting. This spy is obviously bringing this organization down from the inside, and he will attack these people first. That is why you are not just being summoned by a text," the guard answered.

"Oh, ok," Alex replied, still apprehensive. Something was still wrong. Nevertheless, Alex stepped out of his room and closed the door, making sure to lock it behind him, before following the guard.

The guard, in turn, led him down a complicated series of corridors until stopping. Alex was sure there was something fishy with the events going on, and activated the distress signal on his watch-the one that went only to Ben.

The guard suddenly whipped around and plunged a needle into Alex's arm. As the strength went out of his legs and he collapsed, being caught by the guard, and as the world faded to black, Alex heard the guard say, "Stupid MI6 spy. Actually believed the lies I told him. Well, it won't be hard for them to break this spy. The info in your head is going to be the downfall of MI6. We just have to get it out…"


	3. Mirrored Events

Chapter 2:

Ben was getting worried. Alex was supposed to call him when he was done packing. He was supposed to call by 1 AM regardless of whether he was done packing or not. The time was 2 AM. Ben kept on trying to tell himself that Alex was fine, just running a little late, or that he had forgotten to charge his cell phone. But, as great of a liar that Ben was, he could never seem to successfully lie to himself.

Not being able to sit around any longer, Ben reached over and grabbed his ipad. Smithers had designed it so that Ben could automatically be hacked through the security system, and be able to gain control of cameras, bugs and other kinds of surveillance that were set up around Scorpia headquarters.

Ben first hacked into the video of Alex's room. He saw the empty room, and the clothes all thrown in a mess, covering the bed. Then he saw the cell phone lying on the bedside table. That was when he knew something was wrong.

Cell phones that were not given to employees made Scorpia suspicious. He and Alex had to be careful to keep it hidden at all costs; otherwise the game would be up. The fact that Alex had left it on the table out in the open was worrisome. Alex wasn't a careless spy. Careless spies got killed. If it was left there, then that meant that Alex had been taken by surprise by something and had been unable to retrieve it/hide it. Spies who were taken by surprise while undercover generally meant tortured spies or dead spies.

Ben shut down the ipad and hid everything in its proper places. If anyone searched his room, they would find nothing incriminating. The fact that Alex's room still had the electronics meant that his room hadn't been searched yet. Ben had to get there and make sure that whoever searched it would not find anything. 'After all,' he thought, 'for all I know he's just been taken in for questioning again.'

Ben looked around the room one last time to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything before reaching for the door handle. To his surprise, he was met with a guard who had just raised his hand to knock.

"Sorry, sir," the guard stuttered through his shock. "I see that you got the text. They sent me down to guard you because of the spy. We caught him, but it is unknown whether he had any conspirators. Mr. Greene would like to see you for an informational meeting. Would you please come this way?"

"Of course," Ben stepped out of his room, closing the door behind him, and not letting any of his worry show on his face. Alex was caught. Now it was doubly important to get out of here. This was Scorpia, and the only way to get Alex out of here would be to inform MI6 what had happened and get SAS here to rescue him. Ben just had to get out of here first.

"Don't worry about the spy at all. He's locked up, and unconscious. Now just if you would follow me this way," the guard broke through his thoughts, while leading Ben down a different corridor.

"Where are we going?" Ben asked, on edge. "I thought you said we were going to meet Mr. Greene."

"You are. Just in a different room. If there is an accomplice, we do not want him to know where this meeting is being held, as all of the people vital to this organization will be there." Unknown to Ben, this was a very similar speech to what Alex was given, only a couple of hours before.

The guard slowed his brisk pace down to a very slow one. Ben felt the apprehension rise in his stomach. They were in an empty corridor with no doors. Why was the guard slowing down to a stop?


	4. Questions, Threats, and Blood

Chapter 3:

Alex awoke with a groan. He really hated being knocked out. It always left him with that feeling of disorientation and nausea.

The ground beneath him was cold and hard, and when he opened his eyes, he was not surprised to find that he was in a cell. Two sides were solid concrete, and two sides were made of a thick metal bar. The door was also made of heavy bars and the hinges were thick. Alex surmised that he would need a blowtorch to get through the hinges or bars. The concrete was white, and the bars were black. The only color in the room was Alex's blue jeans and baby blue top. Even his sneakers were black.

There were approximately 25 cells, all 6 feet by 6 feet like the one Alex was currently sitting in. Alex's was in the far back corner.

Alex noticed a security camera in the top corner of the cell and wondered when someone was going to show up. They obviously knew that he was awake.

Deciding to examine his cell, Alex stood up and walked around. There was a small cot in the corner. That was it. Nothing else. The cot was bolted securely to the floor, and was made of metal so that he couldn't break it and use it as a weapon or tool. As he sat down on it, he realized that it wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world, but would surely beat sleeping on the concrete ground.

Alex's observations were cut short by four guards walking down the hallway and down to his cell. The one in the lead pulled out a set of keys and opened the door. The three other guards all had their guns drawn and ready to be fired at moment's notice. Alex decided to cooperate, and so when he was ordered to, he calmly walked out of the cell and allowed his hands to be tied.

When prompted to, he walked forward and walked down the hallway with one guard in front of him, on behind, and two on either sides. They might not have any clue as to who he was, but they were being careful.

A few moments later they had gone around so many twists and turns that Alex was completely lost. The prison cells were the farthest level underground and had been off limits to him. Not that off-limits had ever stopped him in the past, but security was so tight that if he had tried to get down here there was only a 2.7% chance that he would get out in one piece.

Shortly thereafter, they arrived in front of a door. The guy in front of Alex reached forward and opened it.

Alex was pulled in and shoved into a chair, which he was promptly attached to with ropes.

A man whom Alex had never seen before stepped forward.

"Well, well. Who do we have here?"

Alex didn't answer; he didn't even acknowledge that the man had spoken.

The man stepped forward and slapped Alex. Alex turned his gaze to the man and stared at him with the blankest expression that he could.

"That was a question. Who are you?"

Still, Alex did not say anything.

"Trying to be the tough guy, are we? Well, it just so happens that I'm an expert at making the 'tough' guys go crying to their mommies…well they would, except that no one ever exits this place once brought here. So there's no real use in not talking, now is there?"

When Alex still did not answer, the man sighed. "Some people just never learn. Well, at least you're going to make life more interesting and enjoyable. You're going to regret not talking right away. Oh yes. You will talk. I'll make sure of it. Now which tool should I use first? Angry guards, whip or knife? Or maybe something a bit more...creative?"

(PAGE BREAK…..PAGE BREAK…..PAGE BREAK…PAGE BREAK….PAGE BREAK)

_The guard slowed his brisk pace down to a very slow one. Ben felt the apprehension rise in his stomach. They were in an empty corridor with no doors. Why was the guard slowing down to a stop?_

"Here we are, Mr. Bently. The meeting is being held behind this secret panel right here. This is the real reason that I had to come to get you. In you go," the guard said while opening a section of the wall.

Filled with apprehension, Ben stepped through the entrance and found himself in a room with a long table and lots of chairs, half of which were filled with other personnel.

He immediately relaxed-but only a little bit. He took one of the empty seats and waited while the secret room slowly filled up. When every chair but two were filled, another man walked into the room. Amrit Rothman. Head of Scorpia's latest operation. Scorpia's one last chance at becoming feared once again. If they failed, they'd be forced to disband, as they were already the laughing stock of terrorist organizations. That was why it was so important for them to find each and every spy that had infiltrated the group.

"Thank you all for coming," Amrit started as he took one of the empty chairs at the head of the table. "As you undoubtedly know, there are some traitors in our midst. Yes, even in this room. One of them has already been found out and…dealt with."

All eyes in the room shifted to the empty chair that sat like a black hole in the tan colored room. Some looked on with anger, some looked on with fear. Ben looked on with a mixture of emotions. Hope that Alex was alive. Fear that he would be found out before he could get help. Guilt that it had been the 15 year-old and not him. None of these emotions played on his face, but he felt them.

"Yes. You have noticed the empty chair. Next time we meet together, there will be one more empty chair. Two spies, two empty chairs. Believe me when I tell you that there will be another empty chair. If you are the spy, I would fear for your life. Scorpia never forgives, Scorpia never forgets."

Rothman clapped his hands twice, and instantly the room was filled with guards. Two for every person in the room.

"Here is how we're going to do this. You will all be taken into the prison block, and you will all be locked in. Anyone who tries to resist will be shot. You will be interrogated until the spy is found. After that, you will immediately be released. You understand how important it is for us to find this man," Rothman explained.

The guards stepped forward and grabbed someone and escorted them all to the prison cells.

One cell in the back corner was occupied. Since they came through a secret passageway, they entered the cell hall right next to this cell.

It took all of Ben's training not to let anything show on his face when he caught sight of a bloody, unconscious figure on the ground of the cell, where he had obviously been thrown carelessly in. Alex's blonde hair was matted down with blood.

Ben held back a shudder and hoped that, for once, MI6 decided to send help quickly. The two of them might not survive long enough if Blunt (once again) waited.


	5. Failed Attempt

Chapter 5:

Two days. It had been two days since Ben had been brought to the prison. Two days since he had gotten a good look at Alex. And within these two days, Alex moved not once. Not even a single twitch. Alex was still sprawled out on the cold concrete. And there was nothing Ben could do about it. Apart from breaking and out and getting help from SAS. 'Yes,' Ben decided. 'If I get out of this, I will go to SAS first and then MI6. They're more likely to help at a faster pace, and MI6 will eventually enlist their help, so why not start out with them?'

Ben was still surprised that they had beat Alex up so bad. If you want information, why make your informant incapable of giving you information? But then again, the best way to finding a partner would to see everyone's reactions to the beat up person and see who reacts with worry. Once again, Ben was thankful that he had kept his emotions under control and not shown any worry.

Ben was getting a headache. Almost 24 hours a day, there was a non-stop chatter from all of the 'innocent' (they were part of Scorpia, after all) personnel. They all wanted the same things.

1. To be treated better

2. To be released

3. To get better food

4. To get revenge on whoever forced this situation upon them

Ben didn't care what they thought. He just wanted them to shut up so he could formulate a plan to get out of there. He needed a clear mind to think.

He noticed that suddenly the room had gone dead silent. His first thought that Alex was finally waking up. When he looked at Alex's cell, he was happy to find that he was actually waking up, but that was not what everyone had gone silent about.

Everyone was staring at a blank wall, from which the sound of approaching footsteps could be heard.

(PAGE BREAK…..PAGE BREAK….PAGE BREAK….PAGE BREAK)

When He awoke, Alex first noticed the voices of outrage that were echoing throughout the cell block. By the time he got his vision in focus, the voices had died down and there was silence. The only sound was that of a door opening and several pairs of footsteps entering the large room. Alex got up and went and sat on his bed. Even though his head was spinning and his body felt like it was on fire, Alex knew that he needed to be able to focus and that whatever was going on was important.

Sure enough, using a different secret entrance, but still next to Alex's cell was a large group of guards. These guards all had their guns drawn and they were pointed at….soldiers?

The guards shifted to allow for the sudden tighter space in between the cells, and the soldier's faces were visible.

Alex's mind was slow in registering who these soldiers were, but before the first one was forced to turn his head back to face front or turn his body to look behind him, Alex's mind had worked it out.

It was K-Unit. Wolf. Eagle. Snake. Tiger (the guy who took Fox's place after he left for MI6).

It seemed that for once, MI6 had actually decided to send help before the last minute. 'Not that it had worked, but maybe Blunt was having a change of heart?' Alex snorted at the thought. 'More likely, Mrs. Jones called up SAS and made an unofficial mission.'

(PAGE BREAK….PAGE BREAK)

Wolf was in the lead, with Snake, Eagle and then Tiger following, all being held closely by guards. When the group entered the cell block, they were expecting to see, maybe three cells occupied by Ben, Alex, and possibly some other guy who got on Scorpia's bad side. What they did not expect was to see an almost full cell block filled with almost all of the personnel of Scorpia.

Wolf was the first one to see the man in the cell. The one single person who was in terrible shape. The one single person in the entire room that had clothing soaked in blood.

'I would hate to be that guy,' was Wolf's first thought. He immediately chastised himself, though, knowing full well that he probably would look like that guy in a few days' time.

He gave the unknown man a second look, when he heard Snake take in a sharp breath. Wolf tried to take a second look and see what Snake was getting worked up over, but by then he had passed the cell, and it would be awkward to twist his head all the way around.

It was then that Wolf found out that he would have plenty of time to figure out what was the cause of Snake's behavior, as the four of them were being put into the cell next to him. They were abruptly shoved in, and landed awkwardly in the enclosed space. The door was slammed closed and locked.

Snake immediately got up and rushed over to the wall of bars that they shared with the beat up guy.

"What is it, Snake?" Tiger asked, also noticing the strange behavior.

Snake didn't answer. He was trying to get the man to put his wrist through the bars. As it was obvious that whoever it was didn't want to, Wolf was surprised when he finally gave in. Snake grabbed the offered arm and felt for the man's pulse. Relief was evident in his face when he turned back to his unit.

"He's perfectly fine. Just a little bit beat up."

"Ok?" Tiger replied. "Do you like know that guy or something?"

Surprise immediately wrote itself over Snake's face, "Yea. So do you. Don't tell me that none of you recognized Al-Cub." Snake hurriedly corrected himself. Alex would be in serious trouble if Scorpia ever found out that they held Alex Rider completely at their mercy.

"It is?" Wolf asked, before getting a better look. "Shoot. It is him. You're sure he's okay?"

"He's fine. Judging from his appearance and heart rate, whoever beat him up did it in a way that wouldn't damage Cub's body too much, but still make it look terrible. I wouldn't be surprised if someone told me that half of that red stuff is A. not his blood or B. not even blood."

"Well," Eagle interrupted. "If you think he's fine, look at Fox over there." Eagle raised his hand and pointed at their friend in one of the cells nearby.


	6. Odd Connections

Chapter 5:

BEN POV

I could not help but groan out loud when I saw Eagle point at me. Was that guy a complete idiot?

I knew that my cover was now blown. Even though Wolf reacted quickly and shoved Eagle's arm down before anyone could follow the finger to my cell, I knew the damage had been done. All Scorpia had to do was review the tapes and find out that I was the other spy.

With Eagle's rash actions went my only hope of escape and getting out of here. Now, Alex would never get the medical help he really needed. 'And soon, the medical help I'll need,' I thought bitterly.

I knew I couldn't really blame Eagle. He was just being his childish self, and was not trying to do anything wrong. He just didn't have enough experience in situations like these.

But still. Some part of still wished he could have refrained from the pointing. I mean, obviously the unit knows me, so obviously they'd be able to pick me out just as well as he did.

I sighed and decided it better not to think of such things. Why dwell in the past when nothing you can do can change it?

It was time to move on and mentally prepare myself for what I was about to endure.

(PAGE BREAK…..PAGE BREAK…..I know there's a way to make this, I just like mine better…..PAGE BREAK)

ALEX'S POV

'WHAT KIND OF IDIOT IS EAGLE? DOESN'T HE KNOW THAT IN SITUATIONS LIKE THESE, YOU GIVE NOTHING AWAY BEFORE YOU ASSESS HOW MUCH YOUR CAPTOR'S KNOW? ANY GOOD SPY…. Oh yea. Eagle's just a soldier. Not a spy. He wouldn't know that…' I shook my head angrily while thinking these thoughts.

Wolf grabbed Eagle's arm fairly quickly, but I knew that it wasn't quick enough. Ben was doomed.

Eagle looked confused, and I could faintly hear Wolf explaining in an angered manner as to why he should not have done that. Comprehension dawned on Eagle's face, and simply said, "Oops!"

Wolf looked like he was going to blow his top. Snake reached over and pulled Wolf away from Eagle, while Tiger pulled Eagle in the opposite direction.

I walked over to the bars, and said to them, "Guys, its ok. They would've found out eventually. This is just a little bit sooner than we had envisioned. I mean, this is Scorpia we're talking about."

"True dat," Tiger replied.

We all looked at him strangely.

"What? I have a 15 year old niece and she's totally obsessed with text talk. She talks like that all the time. And, her house just burned down, so her parents and she have been staying at my house, so I've had to listen to that for a very long time. It's not my fault that that kind of stuff sticks in your memory."

"Well, I guess you're right," I replied to him. Now everyone was looking at me strangely.

"Now what? Is it bad that I can agree that that stuff is extremely annoying and gets basically implanted in your memory?"

"Umm….no," Eagle started. "But how the heck would you know?"

"Classified," I replied to him. I mean, they technically do have enough clearance to know my age and stuff, but I don't really want to tell them, seeing as I was posing as a 23 year old, and we were in Scorpia's headquarters. If Scorpia found out that I was only 15 years old, it would not take them long to find out that I was, in fact, Alex Rider and completely at their mercy on their home turf. Things could go from bad to worse at the mere slip of the tongue.

"I don't want to know WHY that's classified, if in fact it actually is, but I'm glad you agree with me," Tiger interrupted. "I am so sick of living in that house, I'm almost happy that I'm here in this cell. I mean, if I had to hear her talk about this one guy for another second, I think I would go mentally insane."

"Your niece has a boyfriend?" Wolf questioned.

Tiger snorted, "No, but she wishes. She is like totally in love with this one guy, and I have no clue why. She calls him 'hot and dangerous' and then starts talking about how he's never in school. During this conversation I had with her, I got around to asking why he wasn't in school. She just looked at me for a minute before responding. I'm pretty sure she thought I was going to blow up at her answer and tell her that she was childish."

"Why would she think that? Is this guy into something bad or whatnot?" Eagle asked, almost hyper at the thought of Tiger's niece being in love with a bad-boy.

"Actually, yes. This boy disappears from school for weeks on end, then comes back sporting a million and one scars and bruises and in obvious pain. Each time, he has a doctor's note, but no one gets sick that often. Rumors around the school are that he is a part of a gang and does drugs, which might explain his frequent disappearances and injuries. She told me all of this and I asked her if she really thought this guy was 'hot and dangerous'. She said yes and then asked if I knew him and if I could get his number for her!" Tiger answered.

"WHAT?" Wolf, Eagle, and Snake practically shouted.

"Yea. That's what I said, and then she started complaining on how all of these other girls are all falling all over 'her' man! I mean, come one! Anyone else, but the drug addict! In fact, everyone at school calls him 'druggie'!"

I was pretty sure my face looked very odd at this moment. Halfway through Tiger's ranting I had figured out that his niece had a crush on me, now I just had to figure out which girl it was.

Snake, obviously mother-henning as usual, asked, "And how does this nick-name affect the boy? I mean, this could technically be called at bullying, and for all we know, the boy lives in an abusive home."

"Well, I don't think it's an abusive home, at least not from what my niece was telling me. They had to do a school project on their families once, and the boy got up there and told them that his parents were killed in a plane crash when he was one, and that his only family was his uncle and house-keeper. Then, about two weeks later the school found out that his uncle had been killed in a car crash. That's when the strange behavior and disappearances started occurring," Tiger explained.

"Maybe the housekeeper then?" Wolf wondered.

"Nope. The school got word that his house-keeper died in some freak accident a little less than a year after the uncle died. My niece overheard some conversation saying that he was living with some guy now. And what's the likelihood that one kid gets stuck in like 3 abusive homes?"

"Not very large," Snake admitted. "But you skipped answering how the name calling and bullying affects the boy."

"Sorry. Now, just remember that I don't actually go to this school, and I've been hearing this all through a teenage drama queen, so some stuff might be exaggerated, so don't quote me on any of the stuff I've said already. Anyways, the rumors don't seem to have affected the boy, other than the fact that he is alienated from the rest of his grade. My niece tells me that when he comes to school, the kid just sits in the back of the room with his one best friend. She can't understand why the heck that kid, I think his name is Tom, hangs out around the troubled child. The entire school thinks this Tom character knows more than he says. But that's just a rumor. So anyways, the kid just sits in the back of the room and only half of the time pays attention. But the kid always makes up all of his missed work within a day or so."

"Wait, if a kid is gone for a month, how can he make up all of that work by the third day he is back in school?" Eagle wondered.

"He'd have to stay up almost all night to accomplish that," Wolf replied.

"That would match up with what my niece said," Tiger concluded. "She told me that he's constantly falling asleep in class. And then she warned me never to wake him up. I have no clue why she warned me of that, but she told me he had killer instincts, and the last guy who woke him up ended up getting punched in the gut. Apparently all of that happened before the kid was even fully awake."

"Oh, great," Snake butted in.

"What?" Tiger questioned.

"MI6 is going to snatch up that kid so fast!"

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, spies need to have good reflexes and need to be able to fight."

"I feel so bad for that kid," Wolf replied. "Good thing he isn't good at languages, is he?"

Tiger looked like he didn't respond, but eventually gave into the question, "Weeellll….."

Snake groaned, "When we get out of here, the four of us are going to kidnap this kid and bring him to some far away deserted island and warn him to never go anywhere with any kind of government agent."

"Good idea. We should take him to America or Australia. I've heard that their government agencies are a lot better than ours. On the off chance that they picked him up, he'd have a better life," Eagle agreed.

There was a slight pause, the silence being broken by the sound of flesh hitting flesh as I smacked my head. Everyone turned and stared.

"I can't believe I was so stupid and didn't figure it out 'til now!" I exclaimed to no one in particular.

"Are you ok?" Wolf asked me.

"Yea," I answered before turning to Tiger. "Is your niece's name Julie by any chance?"

Tiger stared at me in shock, "How the heck did you know that?"

I just stared at him with a blank expression, "Think for a minute. Me, spy. Spies go on missions. Spies get hurt on missions, say bruises and cuts? Spies keep to themselves. Underage spies go to school. Missing a lot of school means fake reasons for missing it. Kids like rumors. Anything ringing a bell, or should I continue?"

Tiger, Snake, and Wolf stared at me for a minute before comprehension dawned on their faces.

"NO WAY!"

"SERIOUSLY?"

"MY NIECE THINKS YOU'RE 'HOT AND DANGEROUS'?"

"Did I miss something? What are you guys freaking out about?" that was Eagle, obviously not very quick on the uptake.

Snake turned to him and started explaining, "Well, you know that guy we were talking about, who Tiger's niece is in love with? Well, Cub is that guy from her school."

"Oh," came Eagle's response.

Before anyone could make any other comment or question me, a door opened and a bunch of armed guards filed in. They grabbed Ben and I and dragged us out of the cell block. Behind me I could hear them releasing the other Scorpia personnel and allowing them to go back to their work.

I couldn't help but inwardly shiver with fear as to what was about to happen to Ben and I. That conversation with K-Unit had taken my mind off of what was going on, but it all came back with a sudden crash.

I didn't know where my breaking point was, but I had a feeling that I would soon find out.


	7. Revelations

Chapter 6:

**Ben POV**:

I knew it wasn't going to be a walk in the park. Scorpia knew who we were, and they wanted revenge. I mentally steeled myself for what was about to happen. There was no way I was going to let myself crack. If I cracked, then Scorpia would have no other use of Alex, and both of us would be killed. Better to hold out through the pain and hope that maybe the SAS bypassed MI6's power to get their soldiers out, and, in the process, Alex and I.

I gave Alex a weak smile as we were lead through a series of corridors. 'No', I mentally corrected myself. 'Stop thinking about him as Alex. His name is Nick!'

Of course, I knew that his name wasn't actually Nick, but it was the name we had come with prior to entering Scorpia for such a time as this. Now, if one of us cracked and gave out our names, they would have me, and then some random kid named Nick. This way, they wouldn't find out that they held in their possession Alex Rider.

I was jerked out of these thoughts as I was yanked into one room, and Alex yanked into another. I was shoved into a room that smelled terrible, and had dried blood splattered all over it. The guards shoved me over to a corner, and attached my wrists to chains hanging from a ceiling. They left, and in came a man wearing a smile. A malicious smile. In his hands he held a whip.

_(PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK)_

**3****rd**** Person POV:**

As the pair was dragged out of the cell block, the guards around K-Unit started releasing the Scorpia personnel. They all spit in K-Unit's direction before exiting. The door at the end of the hall clanged shut, and K-Unit was left to themselves. They immediately started searching for any way to escape. Finding none, they sat in a circle facing each other and let Wolf take charge.

"Ok, so what do we know?" Wolf asked them.

"We know that we're trapped and will never get out of here alive. WE'RE DOOMED!" Eagle practically shouted.

"Shut up, Eagle," Snake cut in. "We are most certainly not doomed. If Fox and Cub can keep their heads in such a time, then we can too. Granted, we haven't really been in any situation like this before, but we can still get out of here. Look on the bright side."

"What bright side?" Eagle asked in a defeated voice.

"Well… Tiger started hesitantly. "We could be getting tortured for information right about now."

Eagle visibly brightened, "Yea! He's right! And we probably won't get tortured at all because all these guys want is the information that Cub and Fox have! They don't even care about us! I mean, granted, we might be used to help get information out of Cubby and Foxy, but it won't matter because they won't even care about us! They'll be too worried about those two!"

Depression half-settled on K-Unit.

"Eagle?" Wolf started. "You do realize that it's a bad thing that they don't care about us, right? I mean, they won't care if they kill us or not, because we're worth nothing. They'll be less hesitant to kill Cub and Fox because they want something that only the two of them can give them."

"Oh. Yea. I guess you're right."

"Back to what we know," Tiger interrupted.

"Yea, sorry about getting off track," Snake apologized before answering. "We know that we're locked up in Scorpia's cell block. We know that Cub and Fox are still in the land of the living. We know that Scorpia wants the information inside of their heads. We know that we have all been put in the same cell. We know there is almost virtually no escape. We know that we have just destroyed all of the bugs and cameras left in this room. We also know that the sergeant will not like losing us, and will send in the army, literally, to save us."

"Thanks for the recap. And, see Eagle? There always is a bright side."

"No comment," Eagle replied.

"You do realize that by saying 'no comment', you are actually making a comment, right?" Tiger asked him.

"No com-never mind," Eagle stopped himself.

For the next hour, the four SAS soldiers came up with a million different escape plans….and then shot down a million of them.

"Guys?" Snake interrupted. "How long have Fox and Cub been gone?"

"Umm…I'm not really sure," Wolf answered, adopting a worried look.

"It must have been at least an hour, if not two," Eagle inputted.

"What do you think's happened to them?" Tiger wondered.

"I'm sure they'll come back in a minute or so," Wolf said in a voice that told them that he had not the slightest inclination of when they would be brought back.

"You know, it would be funny if in a minute they were brought back, just because you said that they would be. Doesn't it always seem to happen that way in movies? A character says that something will happen when it's something they have no clue about, and then it ends up happening? Speaking of which, did you guys see the latest James Bond movie?" Eagle rambled.

"PLEASE shut up!" Wolf growled at him.

Eagle opened his mouth, as if to protest when the door opened, and in came 8 guards practically dragging two bloodied forms.

The two forms were tossed onto the ground, and the guards stepped out and relocked the door.

The four soldiers swore as they got a good look at the two spies, Snake swearing the loudest of the two.

Wolf maneuvered the unconscious forms so that they were lying on their backs side-by-side.

Snake sighed, "This time, it is definitely their own blood, and this time, there is most certainly damage. I'm going to need help. There's not much I can do, but the guards left two sheets and a pitcher of water. We can clean the wounds if nothing else."

Realizing what Snake intentioned, Wolf got by Cub and maneuvered Cub's head onto his lap, while Tiger did the same to Fox.

Eagle brought the sheets and water over to Snake and awaited instructions.

"I'd hate to be them," Eagle commented, while staring at the blood.

"Well, I'm sure they're thankful for that thoughtful comment," Snake said with sarcasm. "I'm sure they're more thankful for the fact that they're unconscious and are not feeling any of the pain right now. I'd hate to be either one of them when they wake up."

"What makes you say that we're unconscious, Snake?" Cub asked in a pain-laced voice.

"Haven't you ever heard of spies faking it?" Fox asked.

Cub and Fox's eyes then opened. Wolf looked down and saw every bit of Cub's pain reflected in his brown eyes.

Snake started swearing in German and English. (He had taken German back at Brecon Beacons during training).

"Shame, Snake," Cub stated with a hint of amusement in his voice. "Watch the language in front of a minor. You might be a bad influence on me!"

Fox snorted, "If anything, you're a bad influence on him, Cub! I've never seen such a corrupted kid."

"Are you sure you went to high school?" Cub asked him. "Cause I'm in it, and those kids are pretty corrupted."

"The two of you, be quiet!" Snake ordered. "Thank you. Now, since I know that both of you are on the verge of passing out, I don't really know how you haven't already, you have two choices. First, I get Wolf to punch you and knock you out. Second, you guys be men and bear through the pain of me cleaning your wounds until you pass out. Third, you make yourselves pass out in some way shape or form. Your choice."

"Definitely not number one," Fox started off.

"I agree!" Cub stated.

"What? You don't want me to test my punching skills on the two of you?" Wolf asked, innocently. "Well, good. Because I don't especially want to punch two of my unit and cause them more pain than this torture did."

"Ok then, what's your decision?" Snake asked.

"Number 3," Cub declared, without a hint of doubt in his voice. "For one, I don't really need much more pain. Two, I know that you're going to do the roughest cleaning job ever, just to get me to pass out from the pain because you obviously want us unconscious. I'd much rather cause myself pain in a place where I know it will be bad enough to make me pass out than have you try and guess what hurts the most."

"Fair reasoning, what about you, Fox?"

"Same as Cub. He may be a corrupted kid, but he does have some sense in that head of his."

"Ok," Snake replied, happy with their decisions. "So, Wolf and Tiger, you need to be ready to catch Fox and Cub when they pass out, as the thing that will cause them the most pain will probably have something to do with them sitting up. And be careful/gentle. Eagle, just be ready to help out whichever pair seems to need more help."

Fox looked up at Tiger, "This is going to be really easy. Be ready."

Tiger looked unsure about the two spies purposefully causing themselves more pain, but agreed to it just the same.

Fox attempted at putting himself in a sitting position, purposefully leaning on his left arm that seemed bent at the wrong angle. With in a second of putting pressure on it, his eyes rolled back into his head, and he collapsed back in a laying position, his head having been guided back to Tiger's lap by Tiger.

"One down, one to go," Snake said in an approving manner. Through this, he would be able to see what was causing them the most pain and be able to help it. Otherwise, Cub and Fox would've never told him.

Alex shakily got onto his feet, and Wolf and Eagle also did. Snake was seriously surprised that the kid made it that far without passing out.

"Ready?" Cub asked in a weak voice. Snake could see that he was about to pass out just from the excursion of standing up.

"Yea, kiddo," Wolf replied. "Anytime you're ready to knock yourself out, just do it."

Alex nodded, then put all of his weight on his left leg, which he had previously refrained from putting any weight at all on.

As the leg collapsed beneath him, he passed out and fell backward towards Wolf. Wolf, in turn, easily caught him and gently laid the unconscious figure on the ground.

Snake looked up from the two MI6 spies and found everyone staring at him.

Snake sighed, "Well, we better take off their shirts and see the extent of the damage."

All of them mentally braced themselves for what they knew would be a revolting sight as Tiger and Wolf took Cub and Fox's shirts off.


	8. Conditions

A/N: SORRY FOR THE REALLY LONG WAIT, BUT I HAVE BEEN SWAMPED WITH SCHOOL WORK. MID-TERMS ARE COMING UP AND MY TEACHERS HAVE BEEN GOING CRAZY WITH SCHOOL WORK-NOT THAT BEING IN ALL HONORS CLASSES HAS REALLY HELPED. AFTER MID-TERMS I WILL CONTINUE UPDATING MORE FREQUENTLY. I WILL ATTEMPT AT WRITING THE NEXT CHAPTER OF 'CAUGHT IN THE ACT' TOMORROW IF I HAVE TIME. SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING SOONER. THANK DARTHZ FOR KIND OF REMINDING THAT I LEFT YOU GUYS HANGING. SORRY FOR THE SHORT CHAPTER, I WILL TRY TO UPDATE SOON!

Chapter 7:

K-Unit might have braced themselves, but they were still caught unaware when they saw the extent of the damage on Cub and Fox's chests and backs. It was revolting.

Wolf just stared between the pair, not knowing where Snake was going to start. He was surprised to find that Snake had a sly smile on his face. Well, as much of a smile as one could get while staring at their two close friends bleeding and unconscious on the ground.

"Umm, Snake?" Tiger butted in. "Do you know…I mean…how will you…never-mind."

"What he means to say is where do you start?" Eagle interrupted.

"See, this is why I never became a medic or did anything to do with being a doctor," Wolf said out of the blue.

"Well, Eagle and Tiger, this is how I know where to start. I gave the spies 3 options, right?"

Both men nodded.

"And I purposefully made 2 of the options ones that I knew they wouldn't comply to. I also knew that they'd never admit to being anything but 'fine' and so I made the last option one that would tell me where the most pain was coming from. Therefore, I can focus on those sections first and then figure out what to work on next. Understand?"

Realization dawned on both men's faces.

"Oh!" Eagle stated. "That's really smart! You're really tricky! The masters of word manipulation and double meaning didn't even catch onto it!"

"Or maybe they just really didn't like the other options, idiot!" Tiger yelled before wacking Eagle over the head.

"Ow! What was that for?" Eagle cried in outrage.

"Ummm….actually, for once, no reason at all. Just felt like smacking you over the head," Tiger responded after some thought.

"Snake! Tigger's being mean to me!"

"MY NAME IS TIGER! Don't call me Tigger!"

"Will you both just SHUT UP?" Wolf interrupted. "There are more important things to be working on then arguing on whom wacked whom over the head!"

"Eagle? Can you go get the strips of cloth that they threw in here after dragging these two in?" Snake asked.

"Why do I have to do it? Make Tiger do it!" Eagle protested.

"As you obviously haven't noticed, Eagle, Tiger is propping Fox's head up right now, and is therefore doing something to help already. NOW GET OFF YOUR LAZY BUM AND DO IT!" The normally quiet Snake was reaching his limits watching his team bicker while their two honorary members were lying injured.

"Fine. Be that way." Reluctantly, Eagle got up and retrieved the strips of cloth, handing them to Snake.

"Ok. So it looks like Fox's arm is dislocated and Alex twisted his knee somehow. Both have bruised and possibly cracked ribs, and, of course, whip marks that need to be cleaned. First things first. Fox's arm. We need to do this before he regains consciousness, or else it will probably make him lose consciousness promptly after we set it. Tiger and Eagle, hold him steady. I'm going to pop it back in. Ok?" Snake said, finally taking charge after analyzing the two spies' injuries.

Within the next twenty minutes, Snake had patched up Fox and Cub to the best of his ability in the small cell with only strips of cloth and a little water.

K-Unit had a unit meeting the corner away from Fox and Cub after he was done and Snake gave them a summary of what his concerns were.

"Neither of them will die from these injuries, none of them are really all that serious. Cub needs to refrain from walking on that leg, Fox needs to refrain from using that arm, and neither should really do much moving until their whip wounds have healed or else they might open up again. Their ribs will heal in time but will be pretty sore for a while. The bruises, well, those will eventually fade."

"Um, Snake? How about the simple, cut down version for those of us who got bored and zoned out?" Eagle questioned timidly.

Snake sighed before responding. "Basically, they're fine as long as they don't do a lot to aggravate their wounds. They just need to have some rest and time to recuperate…not that I think that they will be given that. The only risk they have right now is of infection, but seeing how they're in the same cell as us, we can easily continue cleaning their wounds to prevent infection."

"Oh," came the only reply.

The four men sat in silent for the next half hour, all lost in their own thoughts. They were all snapped out of them, though, when they heard the key in the lock. Wolf cursed himself for being so inattentive that he didn't even hear the guards approach.

The four soldiers jumped up and made to move near the spies, but were unable to before the guards had whipped out guns and had them pointed at the four. They were unable to move as the guards half dragged, half carried Fox and Cub out of the cell. They protest loudly, of course, but the guards didn't even seem to hear them.

Their protests died down somewhat, though when they realized that they were simply throwing the two into the cell across from K-Unit's. After locking that cell door, the head guard turned toward K-Unit.

"Which one of you is the medic?"

Surprised, none of K-Unit's members answered until the guard threatened to shoot one of them.

Snake slowly raised his hand, wondering whether it was a good thing or a bad thing that he was being singled out.

The head guard just nodded, and pointed to Wolf. "Take him."

Wolf was man-handled out of the cell, down the hall, and out of the cell block. K-Unit's cell door was relocked, and the remaining guards left.

"I think we're in for some trouble," Tiger broke the silence with worry laced in his words.

"Yea. Maybe just a little bit…" Eagle agreed.

"They'd better send in the Calvary soon. Who knows what will happen to us, and I don't think I want to know how long Ben and Alex will last-especially in conditions like these," Snake finished.

A/N: ONCE AGAIN, SORRY FOR THE SHORT CHAPTER, BUT I ONLY HAD ABOUT 10 MINUTES ON MY HAND, AND THIS WAS ALL I COULD GET DONE. I WILL UPDATE ASAP. THANKS FOR THE REVIEWS!


	9. False Hope

Chapter 8:

Well, Snake was right. Alex and Ben weren't given any time to recuperate. Not even 7 hours went by before the guards came and got Alex and Ben, and thus, Alex was forced to walk, and Ben's arm was jerked behind him and tied tightly with the other.

Wolf had been brought back bruised, but still conscious. His worst wound was a couple of bruised ribs.

And thus, the cycle repeated for three weeks. Alex and Ben would get dragged out at random times and tortured for information that they either didn't have or wouldn't give. K-Unit would randomly be taken out and beaten, but never too badly. Snake was beaten the least, and, if it weren't for the fact that he had to clean wounds day in and day out, then he would've been really glad to be the medic. Scorpia seemed to realize that it wouldn't do any good for their captives to be killed before giving up information, and allowed Snake to patch each person up after one of their torture sessions. This cycle seemed unending, until one special day.

Alex and Ben had just had another one of their sessions. Surprisingly, both were still fully conscious. Snake once again patched them up, and (as was custom) the pair was thrown back into their own cell after a half hour. One of the three guards that did this transferal was new (at least, K-Unit hadn't seen him before). Still, he was practically shaking at the glare that K-Unit was giving the guards and really wanted to get out of there.

The two senior guards grabbed Alex and Ben, while the younger, nervous guard closed the cell door after Ben and Alex were escorted out. Now, Wolf's death glare was fully focused on that guard, and he almost had an accident in his pants because of the ferocity of it. In his haste to get away from Wolf's killer glare, he accidently forgot one small detail.

"Good-bye, boys," the head guard called out. "See you tomorrow. Oh, and by the way, I was told to inform you that tomorrow, one of the soldiers is going to die unless you start blabbing, spies."

With those comforting words, the guards walked out. Alex and Ben were ashen. They couldn't allow anyone from K-Unit to die, but they couldn't afford for any of their information to get out. This was, after all, Scorpia. Who knew what they could do with the data.

"Ben? What do we do?" Alex asked in a very small voice.

Ben just shook his head, "I…I don't know."

The two of them shifted closer to each other, drawing a slight bit of comfort from the other's presence. The two were pretty close. After the Pleasures had been killed shortly after Alex arrived in the USA, Alex had moved back to England and Ben had become his legal guardian. Seeing as both men had refused to talk to any sort of psychiatrist, they had confided in each other. Their relationship was a little brother big brother one. It only made sense that when faced with such a large problem that they would automatically gravitate towards each other.

"Guys," Wolf called out. "Don't worry about us. I've heard the kind of questions that they've been asking you, and if you tell them, we'll all be dead anyways. Also, this is SCORPIA we're talking about. We're all going to be killed whether you give them the information. It just might come about a little bit quicker than first anticipated. You can't tell them the information. Don't worry about us."

"Yea," Tiger agreed. "We all knew the risks when we applied to get into the SAS. We knew this day would come sooner or later."

"So?" Alex questioned. "Just because you knew that it might happen sooner or later doesn't mean that you should have to face it. This is all my fault. If I hadn't-"

"DON'T YOU DARE SAY THAT!" Snake screamed. "It's none of your faults. It's stupid MI6's and stupid bloody Scorpia's. None of us had any control of this situation."

All of them were slightly taken aback by the normally calm medic's personality as it turned to white hot anger.

There was silence for about a minute, before Ben started chuckling, "It's a good thing that I was the one to go to the 'dark side' [MI6], and not the rest of you. You wouldn't have lasted longer than a day."

Alex grinned too, "That's exactly what I was thinking. It's almost as if they're asking to be killed."

"I know! I've never known anyone so incompetent."

"What the heck are you talking about?" Tiger questioned the two.

Both spies adopted innocent faces, "Whom? Us?"

"YES YOU!" Wolf said. He hated not knowing something.

"We're not talking about anything of importance," Ben replied with a sly smile.

"Unless….well…unless you're trying to do something that's number one on your list right now..." Alex countered.

"And what might that be?" Snake asked with a sigh. When the two spies got like this, it could take hours to get the information out of them.

"Something that could be the difference between life or death," Alex replied. "You know, Ben, I think that's the first time I used the phrase and actually meant what I said."

Ben opened his mouth to reply, but Eagle beat him to it.

"Oh, Great Masters of All, would you be so kind as to share your great wisdom with us lesser folk, who obviously do not have the brain capacity to hold all of the information we seek?"

When Eagle got a bunch of strange glances and stares, he asked, "What? I'm trying to get on their good side by inflating their egos so that they finally tell us what they're talking about."

"And how many times have you tried this in the past?" Tiger asked.

"Um…more times than I can remember?"

"And how many times has it actually worked for you?"

"…..Never."

"My point exactly."

"Alex…do you think we should tell them? The sooner they get going the better, probably," Ben pointed out.

"Aww. I was having such fun being cryptic…fine. I suppose we must."

"What is it?" Wolf questioned.

"Are you really that thick-headed?" Alex wondered.

Wolf growled menacingly.

"Fine! Just so we're clear, none of you noticed that the guard was too busy trying not to have an accident in his pants that he forgot to lock your cell door?"

"WHAT?" Eagle shouted out.

"If you don't believe us, then try pushing it open," Ben replied.

Warily, Tiger got up and pushed on the door with one finger. It immediately swung open. K-Unit rushed out of the cell as if at any moment it might close and lock them in there once more. The two spies smirked at them. Their smirking stopped, though, when Wolf stepped up to their cell and grabbed ahold of the lock.

"What are you doing?" Alex asked.

"What does it look like I'm doing? Trying to get the stupid lock off because I once again have to rescue you!" Wolf replied.

"Wolf. There's no time. They're going to come in here soon and realize that you aren't here. You guys need to get out of here as soon as possible. There's no point in trying to get the lock off. There's no way Scorpia would be that stupid with us. You're not going to be able to get it off," Ben reasoned.

"But… But… I can't just leave you here!" For the first time in his life, Wolf looked like a lost little puppy.

"Yes you can," Alex gently refuted. "You can and you have to. What's the good in all of us being stuck in here? We have a better chance of survival if you leave now and get some help and come back for us later. Anyways, we'd only slow you down. NOW GET OUT OF HERE!"

Startled by Alex's suddenly loud and commanding tone of voice, Wolf jumped and started to make his way out of the cell block. The other members of K-Unit also saw the wisdom in what Alex had said, but that didn't mean they liked it any better. After hesitating long enough to receive a death glare from Alex and Ben, they followed Wolf out.

Once their footsteps could no longer be heard on the concrete flooring, Alex and ben both slouched against the wall.

"Good thinking, Alex. If you hadn't butted in when you did, I don't think we could've gotten them to leave."

"Yea. But I've learned that giving someone false hope is very useful in manipulating them to look after themselves."

"You don't actually think that they're going to get out of here alive and then be able to get back up and break us out, do you?"

"No, Ben. I'm not stupid enough to think that. They have an okay chance of getting out of here, as no one expects them to be able to get out. The likelihood that they can break in here and rescue us? Not that good."

"Exactly. But as long as they believe that they can easily come back for us, then they'll get out of here and at least save themselves. I wasn't sure what we were going to do about tomorrow."

"I know. I'm glad we got to skip that little decision. Now the question is, what are they going to do to us once they find out that their only means of blackmailing us for information is gone?"

"I don't know, Alex, but I doubt its going to be pretty for either of us."

"New question. What's the likelihood of us staying alive for the next 3 days?"

"How should I know? I guess it depends on just how much they want that information, and how far they'll go to get it."

Alex nodded his head, as if in agreement.

"Well, on that happy note, I'm going to get some sleep. I want to be well rested in the morning so that I can think of great insults to once again hurl at our wonderful hosts."

Ben chuckled and the two of them drifted off to sleep on the concrete floor.


	10. Escape?

Chapter 9:

Both Alex and Ben slept like logs that night. They were no longer worried about what might happen to K-Unit, and their bodies took advantage of that fact. In fact, neither noticed when the group of 3 guards entered the cell block. Nor did they wake up when the shouts of surprise erupted at finding the soldiers gone. The time that they did wake up was when the swearing started.

Alex blearily opened his eyes and immediately settled into the typical 'teenager who just got woken up at an early time on a Saturday' mood. "Would you guys SHUT UP? Some of us are trying to sleep here. Your swearing if highly unappreciated, and unless you want bad things to happen to your faces, you might SHUT UP NOW!"

Ben had woken up a few minutes before Alex, but had not said anything, "Seriously guys! You might want to listen to him. You know how young people are when they get woken up in the mornings…and he's one of the more violent of said people!"

The guards stopped swearing and were staring in confusion at the two spies.

"And have you thought about the trauma that you may have just him through? After all, I'm sure he has never even known half of those words existed until now! Hearing so many ripe words in a row may have just stripped him of any innocence he had left! You know how hard it is to protect young people from the bitter words of men? You have just influenced his entire life, and now he'll probably become an evil mastermind and blow up the world to make it a 'better place'!" Ben finished his rant and took a deep breath.

Alex started laughing, "Great job! Operation Confuse the Guards By Sudden Mood Swings and Utter Lies has now been commenced!"

The two spies high-fived, and the guards (if possible) became even more confused. But of course, with confusion came frustration. And with frustration came anger. And angry guards are never a good thing.

The lead guard signaled the cell door to be unlocked, and it promptly was. After all, although the guards might be highly confused, they were still Scorpia men through and through. A bit of confusion could not keep them off track for long.

Alex felt a hand grab his collar and he was shoved roughly against the solid wall. Stars danced in his vision as his head slammed against the hard surface.

A guard's ugly face filled his sight and a deep, angry voice was emitted from the man's mouth, "Where. Are. The. (insert choice word here) Soldiers?"

Alex's face screwed up and he pretended to gag, "Ugh! When was the last time you brushed your teeth? Your breath reeks! And do you even know what a shower is? When was the last time you properly cleaned yourself?"

This earned him a punch to his left cheek which sent his head once more slamming into the wall.

Alex moved his tongue around his mouth and was grateful to find that he still had all of his teeth. The coppery taste of blood filled his mouth, though and he figured that his lip was split. The guard punched him once more in the face, and the edges of Alex's vision started going dark.

He didn't even realize that the guard had let him go until he was already on the ground, propped up between the floor and the wall. Dimly, he realized that Ben was fighting two guards. One had already been knocked out. A second one followed soon thereafter.

As he turned to face the guard that had been momentarily winded, the guard jumped back and grabbed Alex. A gun appeared in his hand, and it was quickly pressed against Alex's head. "One more move and he's dead."

Ben took a step away from the guard, and then another. He wore a smirk on his face, but Alex could see the signs of tension and worriedness behind the casual façade. "You won't kill him. He's useful to you. He knows more about everything that you're trying to find out than I do. Haven't you heard the saying 'don't judge a book by it's cover'? Anyways, there's no way you can kill him-unless you want to be killed yourself. So why don't you just put the gun down and we'll settle this together?"

"I don't think so." With lightning quick reactions, the guard dove at one of the walls outside the cells and an alarm immediately pierced the cell block.

"RUN! GET OUT OF HERE!" Alex screamed at Ben.

"No! I can't leave you here!" came the reply

"GET YOUR LAZY GOOD FOR NOTHING SELF OUT OF THIS COMPLEX BEFORE I BEGIN SLOW AND PAINFUL TORTURE!" Alex shouted back.

Ben hesitated, but realized that there was no way to get Alex out of the cell, as the guard once more had the gun pointed at Alex.

He quickly turned around and sprinted down the corridor, his legs carrying him away from the guard with the gun and Alex.


	11. Blissfulness

A/N: Oops! Sorry. Before I had posted the same chapter twice instead of posting this chapter! Thank you S122355 for informing me of this!

Chapter 10:

Alex slumped with relief as he finally convinced Ben to run away and hopefully get out. Not that he thought it was likely. The guard had pressed the alarm, after all.

Sure enough, not fifteen minutes later, another guard entered the cell complex with news of Ben's recapture.

"Come along, spy. We get to go see what the punishment is for your friend's escape. I'm sure it will be great! Well, maybe not for him."

Alex was led to a room that contained guards, Ben tied to a chair, and a whole lot of torture equipment. Things were not looking up.

Alex was tied to a chair directly across from Ben who mouthed 'sorry, I tried'. Alex mouthed back 'it's ok'. But they both knew it wasn't.

The man who had been torturing them cleared his throat to get their attentions. "Well, why don't we get started? This should be fun! Normally I would let the man who escaped have all of the fun, but why should he? I'm thinking I should spread the fun around and have the one left behind have as much fun as possible! Guards, take Mr. Escapee back to the cell and MAKE SURE it's locked tight. We wouldn't want him escaping again, would we now?"

Ben of course protested and made up excuses, but they fell on the deaf ears of an apathetic man. He was dragged back to his cell, locked up, and left to worry about what might happen to Alex.

Meanwhile, Alex was not having the best day. As soon as Ben was dragged out, creepy Scorpia man clapped his hands, "This should be fun! He'll be all alone in that cell rethinking all of his actions and worrying about you, while I get to try to figure out more information! And now I have an excuse for not going lightly! This is the best day ever!"

Alex glared at the man, "Not to me it isn't. I mean, how can it be when you're stuck in a room with some psycho who wants to tear you to shreds and then put you back together again?"

The man shook his head sadly, "What has the world come to when prisoners look at the glass half empty? You should be excited for me! I have no boundaries for what I can do to you!"

"Somehow I'm seeing how that's a good thing," Alex responded, thinking (not for the first time) that this man was insane to an extreme level.

"Too bad," and icy quality had taken over the man's words, and Alex had to suppress a shiver.

The man grabbed a knife and slashed Alex's shoulder. A gasp emitted from Alex's mouth before he could muffle it. The insane torturer smiled, "That's right. Feel the pain."

Another knife slash, this one across Alex's cheek. "I imagine the girls used to all flock to you, didn't they? Well, if you ever get out of here, they wouldn't anymore. But then again, you're never getting out of here, so that's not an issue."

The man worked with the knife for another five minutes before throwing it back on the table and saying, "That's enough of that for now. We can go back to it later. Why don't we move onto the whip, my personal favorite torture device?"

Inside his head, Alex groaned. But he let none of his fear, pain or discomfort show on his face. He may not be able to stop the torture, but he was able to not give the torturer what he really wanted. His resolve faltered a little after the first 20 strikes, but not all the way and Alex was able to bring his face back to emotionless. But the damage had been done. The man had seen the pain reflected in Alex's face. He smiled cruelly. "That's right. It hurts doesn't it? Just admit it. Your resolve is crumbling! Life will be so much easier for you if you would just give in. I might even let you have a somewhat painless death!"

Alex worked up a gob of spit and shot it directly into the man's face. "Never."

Anger laced the man's face and he threw the whip aside. "I'm thinking it's time to introduce you to my friend, Mr. Bat."

Alex looked at him strangely before realizing the man didn't mean that animal bat but the baseball bat.

The first hit cracked at least two of his ribs, Alex was sure of it. Now it hurt just to breathe. No longer did he want to just focus on breathing instead of the pain, because that was the source of the most pain now.

As his shoulder took another blow and Alex felt it dislocate, Alex realized for the first time that every time the man hit him, the edges of Alex's vision were going black for longer and longer periods of time. He was on the verge of blissful unconsciousness, something that Alex wanted so badly. First thing that popped into Alex's mind on how to achieve this blissfulness was to goad the man into striking him really hard.

"So I've been wondering how the likes of you ever got into Scorpia. I mean, you try to put up a front of confidence, but anyone with a brain is able to see what a weakling you are. If you can't notice this, then I guess maybe you don't really have a brain."

Alex's mind was a little messed up from the pain, and so his insult came out a little strangely worded, but the main point got across to the torturer. Alex watched as the man raised the bat up, and as he brought it down against Alex's head.

With a smile on his face, Alex fell into unconsciousness, unaware that it would be a week before he opened his eyes again.


	12. The Loss of Hope

Chapter 11:

Ben paced nervously around his cell while the guards mocked him and jeered at him. He had tried to escape because he had known there would never be another chance. He hadn't wanted to leave Alex behind, but logically there had been no choice. Right?

Ben had figured he would be captured once more; the odds had been so against him. But not taking a chance at escape would've meant that he was starting to crumble to the will of his captors. And one of the top rules of being a spy is to never break. Not that many people actually are strong enough to follow this rule, but still. But the breaking of someone generally started with the slightest giving in to a captor. One spin to set the ball rolling.

So Ben had taken the chance thinking 'what's the worst that will happen? They'll either kill me or torture me to an extreme level.'

But they hadn't. And now Alex was suffering the cost of his escape.

Angrily, Ben punched the wall. Not that it made him feel any better. All it did was make his hand hurt.

The guards laughed and mocked all the more.

(PAGE BREAK)

Ben was sitting in the corner of his cell, head bent, knees curled up in front of him.

It had been two hours. Where the heck was Alex?

(PAGE BREAK)

Ben was pacing around his cell, trying to work off some of his growing worry but failing.

It had been three bloody hours. Was Alex even still alive? How much pain could a teenager withstand before his heart gave out?

(PAGE BREAK)

Ben was once again sitting in the corner of his cell, head bent, knees curled up in front of him.

Four. Bloody. Hours. Any minute and they'll tell me that he didn't make it. That he died at the hands of some apathetic maniac. That he died because of a stupid chance at freedom. He's dead. There's no way he could survive this long. It's all my fault. What am I going to tell people? Ha-right. I'm not getting out of here alive. There's no way. He's dead. He's dead. He's dead. He's de-

Ben's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the cell block door being thrown open. Two guards entered dragging a limp body between them. A blood-covered limp body. Ben couldn't tell if it was alive or dead.

**A/N: Ha! I thought I should just end it there. Just so that you readers who haven't read the sequel to this are left hanging on whether Alex is alive or not. So if you want to know what happens, you can just read 'Caught in the Act' (which I have not abandoned, nor is complete yet). I promise the next chapter will be longer and will be up probably Thursday. If not Thursday, then Friday. No later than Friday. I promise. So don't kill me. **


	13. Failing Alex

Chapter 12:

The door to the cell opened. Ben couldn't breathe. For the first time since he became a spy, he couldn't control his emotions. His normally blank face showed the guards every bit of how horrified, worried, and scared he was. Not that the guards noticed. They were too busy shooting worried frowns at the young man's still form. They knew what dead weight felt like, and this felt the same as any dead man they had dragged before.

Ben snapped out of his trance as the guards dropped Alex's arms. They stepped back out and made sure the lock was closed. Then they left.

Ben immediately rushed to Alex's side and felt for a pulse. He was relieved to find one, although it wasn't that strong. Alex's chest rose and fell as he breathed in the oxygen that would keep him alive.

Leaning back, Ben sighed in relief, only to find that he was not alone. One of the guards had stayed behind and was standing awkwardly in the middle of the half opened door.

"Yeeesss?" Ben asked, unsure of what the guard wanted.

The guard shuffled his feet for a moment before answering, "Is he…is he…"

Ben instinctively knew what the guard wanted to know, "He's still alive. His pulse is still steady, but pretty weak. These injuries are causing major amounts of blood loss."

The guard nodded, before turning to go. Before he did, though, he grabbed two bed-sheets from a table by the door along with a pitcher of water and passed them through the bars to Ben. "This should help. But don't tell anyone that I was the one to give it to you."

Ben nodded, grateful, but still slightly confused, "But what about the…"

"Cameras? You guys destroyed all of the ones in here, and the heads haven't gotten around to ordering someone to replace them."

Once again Ben nodded, "Thank you."

Ben's gratitude seemed to remind the guard just who exactly he was and that Ben was a prisoner whom should not be helped. The guard turned on his heel and fled.

Ben would've spent more time thinking about what exactly the guard's attitude meant if it hadn't been for the blood slowly pooling on the ground around him. He quickly set to work attempting to help his unconscious partner.

(PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK)

A noise awoke Ben on the third night. Alex's head was on his lap, and he did not move for fear of hurting the teen further. So he cracked one eye open and peered into the darkness. To his surprise, the guard who had seemed to show some emotion towards Alex's well-being stood there at the cell door.

Ben was about to pretend to wake up when the guard started talking.

"Alex? I know that, well, you probably can't hear me right now. But, like, sometimes people who are in a coma can hear what's going on around them. Not that you're necessarily in a coma, but…oh, who am I kidding. No one can survive that much blood loss and still just be in a normal unconsciousness. Who cares. Anyways, if you can hear me, then just know that my boss is working on getting you some help and possibly out of here. He…he has a plan that will work-if he can get the heads on board with it. Who am I kidding? They're going to agree with it. Anyways, I'm just telling you this because I've heard that if people in comas give up on life, they basically end it then and there. Just to give you something to live for. Not that I really think you need anything. After all, you are a Rider, and from what I've heard, Riders are survivors, so…I should be going."

The guard left, leaving a very confused Ben Daniels behind. The reason that Alex was still alive was because no one knew he was Alex Rider. In fact, they had no clue who the heck he was. But obviously someone knew Alex's identity. Shouldn't they have reported it to the heads of Scorpia? And who was this boss of the guard? Wasn't Scorpia the man's boss? And why would this boss care about Alex's well-being? An unexpected ally? Someone wishing to have Alex's talents for their own?

Ben couldn't fall asleep again. There were just too many thoughts running through his head.

(PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK)

Ben sighed. Day five and Alex still hadn't woken up. His pulse was weaker than it had been, and Alex's face had taken a deathly pale color. If he didn't get help within the next day, Ben was sure Alex would be dead. His breathing was even shallower than it was the day before. Ben could see that Alex was literally on the edge of the cliff. One step farther into the coma he was in and he'd be dead.

Ben checked Alex's pulse once again. It was so faint that if it wasn't for the small rises and falls of Alex's chest, Ben would've been sure that it was just his imagination. Alex didn't have long left to live.

Ben fought to keep control. 'He's not dead yet,' he mentally reminded himself. 'He still has life left in him…not that it's that much. Remember what the guard said? Riders are survivors. Alex won't let one little beating break him.' But even as he thought this, Ben discarded the idea. 'Who am I kidding?'

He sent out one more silent desperate plea, 'Come on, Wolf. You've never let me down before. Where are you guys? If not for me, show up so that you can save Cub.'

(PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK)

It was late in day five when the cell door opened once more. Once a day, food had been brought, and Ben had force-fed Alex as much as he could. But he knew it wasn't enough. Alex would only survive with medical help. Ben was just grateful that the beatings and interrogation had stopped while Alex was in the coma. Ben wasn't sure how he'd take care of the two of them.

Ben looked up to see three guards unlocking his cell. Dread filled Ben as he realized that they were not there to bring food. It looked as though Ben's interrogation was going to start up again.

One of the guards motioned with his gun for Ben to stand up and move to a back corner. Confused, Ben did as he was told. Too late, Ben realized that they were there for Alex, and that by moving, Ben had left them clear to pick up the unconscious boy and leave. He quickly started to protest, but the guards pretended not to hear. They left without a word.

Ben slowly slid down the wall he was standing against and buried his head in his hands. He had failed Alex once again.


	14. Dwindling Spark of Life

Chapter 13:

When the guard brought the boy back to the cell, he was unsure of what to do. His partner had finally fallen into an exhausted sleep after an hour of worrying. The man would want to be woken up to see that the boy was back and still alive, but the guard knew that he needed sleep. So he let the sleeping man be and put the boy back as quietly as possible. On his way out of the door, the guard breathed a sigh of relief. The heads had agreed to his boss's plan. Things were going right on schedule.

(PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK)

Ben's eyes fluttered open a good 12 hours after they had closed, and 7 hours after Alex had been brought back. For a moment, Ben was stuck in that blissful state of not remembering where he was or why he was there.

But just like the lives of many, these blissful moments pass away. And then you must wake up to the harsh reality.

The first thing Ben noticed was that there was now a cot in the cell that had not been there before. A lump of blankets was laying on it. Ben got really confused. Since when had he and Alex been on the cot-receiving level of prisonership?

And that's when Ben realized that the lump wasn't of blanketS. It was a blanket wrapped around a teenage boy. A certain teenage boy whom Ben happened to be overjoyed to see.

Hope flickered in Ben's chest as he felt the boy's neck for a pulse and felt a faint, but strong pulse. Maybe there was yet a chance for Alex.

Wondering what exactly they did to Alex, Ben threw the cover off of the boy. And was amazed at what he saw.

Alex was covered practically from head to toe in bandages. Some of his deeper knife cuts and whip marks even had stitches in them. It seemed as though Alex had just moved up to prisoner #1.

After inspecting that every wound had been attended to properly, Ben picked the blanket up and once more covered the limp form of the teenager.

As he stroked his hand once through the boy's hair, he heard a voice behind him, "You know his heart gave out 3 times."

Ben spun around, instinctively putting himself in front of Alex, and glowering at the guard standing there.

"How long have you been standing there, and what do you mean?"

The guard chuckled, "I've been standing here since before you woke up. I was put in charge of watching your buddy while you slept like the living dead in case something happened. And I meant exactly what I said. While they were working on him, his heart stopped 3 times. They had to perform CPR to get it started again."

Ben froze at that. Alex had died 3 times. _'What would have happened if they hadn't been able to revive him? How could I live with myself?'_

The guard must've noticed the expression on Ben's face because he continued, "But they assured me that he's most likely fine now. They got his heart stabilized to a certain extent. I mean, there's still always a chance that he might just give up and die, but he should probably wake up sometime within the next week."

Ben nodded, and sat down on the cot, lifting Alex's head to lie on his lap. Absentmindedly stroking Alex dirty blonde locks, he asked, "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did they help him?"

The guard shrugged, "They still don't even know his name, let alone what he's been up to and how much of a threat he is. They can't be sure of anything."

There was something odd about the way he emphasized the word 'they'. It was almost as if he was implying that he already knew everything there was to know about Alex. But that was impossible, wasn't it? Then Ben remembered the words he had overheard a guard say that one night, and suddenly it all made sense.

Somehow, this guard (now Ben recognized the voice)'s boss had recognized Alex and had known who he was. For some reason that man wanted Alex. To use him or kill him, Ben did not know which one. And so this same man was manipulating Scorpia in some way so as to get to Alex. Ben was still trying to decide whether this was a good or bad thing.

"Well, now that your awake, I get to go," and with that the guard left.

Ben looked back down at the boy, "You're going to be ok. All you have to do is just wake up, Alex. Just wake up so that when K-Unit comes to rescue us, Snake won't overly mother-hen you. When they come, Snake's already going to freak out over your state of being. And Wolf will get all protective over you. And you need to be awake so that you can see everything he does and so that you can laugh about it later with me. And use it as blackmail. And once we're out of here, I'll take you to your favorite restaurant, and you can get whatever you want. And I'll buy you that new Xbox game you were looking at. And I'll make sure MI6 never uses you ever again without your consent. And we can even take a holiday to the beach. But only if you wake up. You have to. You can't just leave me here." He knew that he wasn't being realistic, but he was in emotional turmoil due to the past couple of days and the stress he had been through.

He didn't even realize that he was crying until he saw the splash of water hit Alex's face.


	15. Living Life

Chapter 14:

A day and a half later, Alex's eyes fluttered open. A low groan brought Ben rushing to his side from where he had been dozing across the cell.

"Alex? Are you ok? Can you hear me?" Ben was very relieved that Alex woke up, but still worried that he might still slip back into a coma and never wake up again.

Alex just groaned in response and stared into Ben's face.

"How are you feeling?" Ben asked.

A hoarse, whisper responded, "Fine."

Ben moved across the room and picked up a cup which he then filled with water from a pitcher. Moving back to Alex, he propped Alex's head up and helped him drink.

Alex drank greedily-not that Ben was surprised. Alex had been out for a better part of a week, and although Ben had dribbled water into Alex's mouth, there wasn't a lot that went down.

"Thanks," Alex replied with a stronger voice once all the water was drained from the cup.

"Now, how do you really feel?" Ben asked sternly.

"Like I said, fine," Alex replied.

Ben rolled his eyes, "When are you ever just going to admit the truth? I can see the amount of bandages covering your body, and can only attempt at imagining what kind of pain you must be in. So don't give me any of that 'fine' dirt. You are most certainly not fine!"

Alex looked at him curiously for a moment, "Ben? How long exactly have I been out for?"

Ben froze before dropping his gaze from Alex, "The length of time is unimportant. You're awake now and that's all that matters."

"Ben. How. Long. Have. I. Been. Out. For." Alex ground out the words as if he knew that there was no way Ben was going to tell him.

"Way to skip the usual five minutes of beating around the bush, Alex."

"Tell me."

"Nope. Like I said, length of time in just the amount of times an arrow passes around a set of numbers."

Alex sighed, "That long, huh?"

Ben nodded solemnly.

"But you do realize that one of these days I will find out, and you will pay the price of not telling me now, right?"

"Yup," Ben replied, happy that Alex seemed to be getting off of the topic.

"Don't say I didn't warn you."

"You know I will," Ben replied with a sly smile.

Alex just shook his head, "You know what, Ben? I'm kinda tired. I think I'm going to go back to sleep."

A flash of fear passes through Ben as he thought of what might happen to Alex while he slept. Would his body just give up and shut down completely?

Alex must've noticed the flash of fear, because he said one last question before closing his eyes.

"Really? It was that long? How many days, Ben?"

(PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK)

Two weeks passed by without incident. It was almost as if Scorpia had given up on the two of them. Except, that couldn't be. 'If they had given up on us,' Ben thought, 'then why are they suddenly feeding us and making sure we actually have some protein in our meals?'

Not that Ben or Alex were going to complain about the lack of interrogation and the sudden increase in food.

But as the days passed, Alex and Ben became more restless. The lack of anything was making them a bit cabin crazy. The one thing Ben was thankful for, though was that Alex was a lot stronger than he had been.

Finally, it got to the point where they could just not stand being in the cell any longer and they plotted the most daring escape of the century. Odds were 96% against them. 4% chance of succeeding and living. Most people would've called it an unnecessary risk. Alex called it living life.

A/N: I was going to go on, but it seemed like just too good a place to stop. So I stopped. I'll post chapter 15 either tomorrow, Wednesday, or Thursday at the latest. Thanks for all of the amazing reviews!


	16. Trapped

Chapter 15:

Alarms rang out throughout the building as Ben and Alex ran as fast as they could through the building, trying to find an exit. They may have been undercover in this facility for a number of weeks, but they had never been allowed in this part of the building. Plus, all of the secret passageways were not helping. For all Ben and Alex knew, the only way out of there might be through a passageway. That might be the only exit. But they wouldn't know it and could be trapped in this section until someone recaptured them or killed them.

It had been a brilliant plan, really. So old and simple that no one would ever think of a top spy stooping that low so as to use it. Which was exactly why they chose it.

Ben was pulled from his doubting thoughts as Alex yanked him down a new corridor. They raced along it before…..victory! They were out of that section of the building….and into a different part they had never been in before.

They had been free for a full 7 minutes. The alarms had been ringing for 3 of them. Surely their location must've been discovered by now. After all, this was Scorpia.

Ben knew that they couldn't keep running around like this forever. Both he and Alex were already extremely tired and their breaths were coming in short gasps. And they had only been running for 3 minutes.

Their wounds had healed somewhat, but Ben was pretty sure that anyone with any medical training would be killing them for all of the physical activity they were doing right now. 'Well, they need to get in line behind a whole lot of Scorpia personnel, so I think I'll take my chances.'

He and Alex rounded a corner….and found themselves at a dead end. Alex groaned out loud, and Ben bent over with his hands on his knees trying to catch his breath in the short break they seemed to be taking.

"This has to be it, though! I mean, why else would they have a random dead end in the middle of nowhere with nothing around it? We've been everywhere else in the section! This must be the way out! It has to be!" Alex exclaimed.

Alex moved closer to the offending wall which seemed to be blocking their way, and Ben moved farther down along the hallway-retracing some of the steps that they had just taken.

The hallway wasn't all that long, only around 20 feet long. But before Ben could get that far, he heard Alex cry out, "Run!"

Ben whirled around to see that where the wall had been, it was no longer. The entire wall blocking the hallway had slid silently to one side, revealing the passage that he and Alex had been looking for. Except, it was filled with Scorpia assassins. That was why Alex had yelled at him to run.

Ben turned around quickly, only to find that his direction had been cut off also.

He and Alex were standing in the 20 feet between the two groups of trained Scorpia assassins, none of whom were moving any closer to the two. Everyone in that section-MI6 agents and Scorpia assassins alike- knew the truth.

Alex and Ben were trapped with no escape in sight.

A/N: Don't kill me for the short chapter. It was just too perfect an ending place right here. So suspenseful (at least I tried to make it) that I just had to end it right here. I'm writing the next chapter right now, so that I can put it up tomorrow (even though I have a million things to do tomorrow and wouldn't be normally update). So, I'm just going to go find my bullet proof vest, lock all of my doors, and hope that none of you come after me to kill me.

BTW: Alex was out for 7 days (for those of you who were curious)

There are only 2 chapters and an Epilogue left after this….and then comes 'Caught in the Act'.


	17. Shadowed Plans

A/N: Now that this chapter is up, I can unlock my doors once more, get rid of the bullet proof vest, and the chainmail (which would protect me against a katana!) Here it is, as promised.

Chapter 16:

Alex and Ben were trapped with no escape in sight.

Ben noticed Alex's eyes darting around the small section of the hallway as if he didn't want to believe that this was the end and that, for the first time ever, there would be no getting out of this one alive.

One of the assassins stepped forward, "The two of you combined have become too much of a safety risk for Scorpia. While it would be ideal to know what the two of you know and have told MI6, it is not top on our list. As such, the heads decided that we should kill one of you. **(A/N: Thought about ending it there and making you super mad at me…but I didn't because I like my head being situated on my shoulders)** And well, it was an easy choice. After all, we've been trying to get rid of Alex Rider here for years. And don't look so shocked, Mr. Whatevertheheckyournameis. You think we wouldn't know when we hold a Rider in our grip?"

"But…how…"

"Simple. DNA testing. You can change age and appearances, but you can't change your DNA. Now, people have been known to drop dead at an alarming rate when they don't kill Rider when they have the chance, so let's get on with this, shall we?"

Ben's eyes widened in horror. Alex stumbled forward a pace. The man who had been talking raised his gun and shot. A resounding echo went throughout the hallway. **(A/N: Thought about ending it here too…but same reason as before)**

Crimson blood appeared on Alex's chest and spread. His eyes fluttered close and he collapsed. Ben immediately moved to get nearer to Alex. An intense pain in his arm held him back from reaching Alex. He looked down and noticed a spot of blood growing on his arm, similarly as it had done on Alex.

Just before the gun connected with his head, he saw someone lean over Alex and check for a pulse. The man smiled and stepped away from Alex's body. And the darkness was complete.

(THIS IS AFTER BEN IS UNCONSCIOUS, SO HE DOES NOT KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON)

The man leaned down over the boy and felt for a pulse. He felt one, but it was very faint and slow. 'Perfect', he thought as he smiled. He stepped away from the boy and looked up to make sure that the man was unconscious and being brought back to his cell before quickly ushering the doctors who were mixed in forward.

The dart that they had shot the boy in the back with would slow down his heart beat so that less blood would be pumped through the gaping wound. The doctors would then stabilize the boy as best as possible before putting him on a gurney and taking him down to their 'hospital' wing. There they would extract the bullet and close the wound.

The boy had survived a bullet to the chest before. He would survive this one as well. The doctors would make sure of it or pay for it with their lives.

Once the boy was fully stabilized, then he would be brought to another facility where he would be given a break from any torture or interrogation. Once his wound was healed enough to cause no more danger to his life, then the brainwashing would begin. Once Rider had all of his memories erased and had new ones that suited Scorpia's purposes, then they would rule the world. For it was well known that whoever holds a Rider in their power and in their control-especially willingly- controlled the world.

The man smiled at the plan that Scorpia had made. It was almost completely flawless. It left only the smallest margin for error.

'Our biggest issue is going to be pulling out from this facility before those blasted SAS soldiers show up. They've been getting a little too close for comfort,' he thought before following the doctors who were rushing the boy to their 'hospital'.

For, in fact, K-Unit had indeed reached England and had managed to make it to London eventually. There, they convinced MI6 and the Sergeant to make a full out raid of the building and hopefully destroy Scorpia's latest project. But that long amount of time that the soldiers had taken from the Scorpia headquarters back to London had been too long. Their goals would go unreached in the regard of Alex Rider.

After all, the thing that makes brainwashing so dangerous was because it always worked.


	18. Dead Inside

Chapter 17:

"Alright, men!" Wolf said rather loudly. "Here," he pointed to a spot on the map behind him, "is the location of the building. Maps are being handed out of the layout of this building. You will notice that each room is labeled. All of you remember your unit's job? Good. We'll be entering from the East side, so make sure you look at the map as if going into the building from that direction. Understood? Good. We leave at dawn."

While all of the units slowly trickled out, Wolf sat down and sighed. The rest of K-Unit came up to him and sat down in a circle with him. They all just sat in companionable silence as they drank in the comfort of each other's presence.

Wolf was the first to speak, "We shouldn't have listened to them. We should've taken them with us."

Snake sighed, "It was really hard leaving them there, but they did have valid reasoning. We would've been killed and then where would they be? No one would come looking for them. At least this way we get to them."

Wolf looked up, "You don't know that. They might be dead right now."

"What would I tell my niece? She'd be devastated," Tiger commented. (A/N: CHAPTER 6 REFERENCE)

Eagle's eyes blazed, "You guys are NOT going to talk like this? Want to know why? Because Cub and Fox are NOT dead. They can't be."

"Eagle, we don't know that. They might be; they might not be. It's been at least 3 weeks since we escaped," Snake said as gently as he could.

"NO! Cub promised me that he has the luck of the devil and wouldn't let any crazy madman kill him! And Scorpia is just made up of a bunch of crazy madmen. So there!" With that Eagle got up and stormed off, fighting tears. For they all knew that Cub had no control over the situation.

"Eagle's right," Tiger commented after a moment. "We're all acting as though they're already dead, but we don't really know it for a fact. Innocent until proven guilty. Alive until proven dead. If we give up hope now, what's left to live for?"

Little did they know that two days earlier, Fox done just that.

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Ben woke up with an intense headache. He groaned out loud once he realized that he was back in his cell. He rubbed the side of his head where the most pain radiated from and felt a large spot of dried blood. '_Hopefully I don't have a concussion_,' he thought to himself before trying to recall what exactly had happened.

And then it all came rushing back to him. From the escape attempt to the their capture and to Alex' death. '_He's dead'_ seemed to echo throughout his mind while Ben started hyperventilating.

'_No! He can't be!'_ his mind screamed at him.

A quieter voice laughed, _'Of course he is! You watched them shoot him! No one can survive a bullet to the chest!'_ **(A/N: Both of these are voices in his head)**

'_Alex can! He did once before!'_

'_And got immediate medical attention. Do you really think they're going to give him that?'_

'_But he had such a long life to live ahead of him!'_

'_Remember what he always said? 'You're never too young to die'. That seems to apply here.'_

'_He's not dead! He's Alex! He can't be dead!'_

This time the sarcastic sadistic voice took on the form of Alex's voice, _'Denial is not just a river in Egypt, Ben.'_

Ben shook all of these thoughts from his head. He'd much rather do no thinking whatsoever. He didn't notice when he slumped back against a wall in defeat. He didn't notice when tears started running down his face. He was focusing too hard on not thinking. On not caring. On forgetting.

Eventually, he fell into a light slumber. But even that only offers brief relief.

**A/N: SORRY FOR THE SHORT CHAPTER! But the story is nearing the end, and I just felt that this was the right place to end this chapter. I hope I made it really seem as though Ben was devastated and had basically given up the will to live. I will try to update again soon. It will probably be on Friday though. Hope you enjoyed it. Sorry once again for the really short chapter. All that's left is one more chapter and then the epilogue. **


	19. Coals and Ashes

Chapter 18:

Ben was still sitting in the cell staring at the door on the opposite side. Once, those gray metal bars were something blocking his way in his fight for freedom. Once, they were an obstacle. Once, they kept him trapped. Once, Ben had wanted to be on the other side.

But his view of those solid metallic bars had changed over the course of his stay. Once they had been something to fight against. But now? Not anymore. For those bars were like the very ones he had put up around his mind, his heart. The ones he had put up on purpose. To hide the pain. To hide the emotion. A barrier between himself and the world. And those gray metal bars in front of him only added to that fortress.

The fortress he had created for himself after he had realized that he had lost the number one thing worth living for. The fortress he had created after he lost hope. Some fortresses cost money. Some cost lives. Others are just waiting for us to retreat into so that the doors can close. Close and shut out all light from the world. And that was exactly what Ben had done. Retreated into that fortress and let it build itself around him. He had entered a dangerous place. One that few return from.

One final step and it would all be over. All he had to do was give up all hope and the fortress would become reinforced. And Ben would become no more.

All that was left was a small, dwindling fire on a rough floor in a cold fortress. With no logs present to fuel the flame, it's only a matter of time before the flame becomes coals, and coals turn to ashes. When that one last remaining coal goes cold, it's all over. All Ben had to do was keep that small spark alive for just a few hours more.

But that did not seem likely for as the hours passed, Ben was slowly taking the oxygen from that small flame of hope and slowly snuffing the fire out. Would someone come in time to keep it from going out completely? Only time would tell. And time was not something that Ben had left.

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A sense of dread filled Wolf as they entered the compound. Something about the quietness. The way their footfalls echoed down the hallways. The fact that nothing in the building seemed to be living or breathing. A sense of finality hung in the air. A sense of death. Of souls passed on. Of hope lost.

Something about the place put all of the soldiers on edge. They all felt the deep need to step lightly. To make as little sound as possible. To ghost their way down the hallway.

All of the units knew their instructions, so no words passed through any lips. They simply broke off and headed to their assigned destination.

K-Unit was to go to the cells and free Cub and Fox. And to give them any medical assistance they needed. As they neared a wall that separated one part of the building from another, they paused. This wall seemed to be able to slide open or closed to either open up or close off the sections from each other. Wolf was thankful that the wall had been opened when K-Unit had made their escape. The wall was half closed, and as the soldiers got beyond it into the next section, a sense of urgency and dread filled their beings. Part of them didn't want to know. Another part wanted to run and find out as quickly as possible. Their sense of duty won out.

Eagle practically heaved a sigh of relief when they rounded the bend and found themselves in the cell block. One of these cells would hold their answers.

No sounds were heard. No talking, no breathing, no moving. No signs of life. Even the air felt dead.

Wolf had a momentary flash of worry that Scorpia had moved out. It had taken them a long time to reach England, get help, and arrive back. Had it been too long?

But then they reached the cell where Cub and Fox had been held. And what they saw would change their lives for the worse.

Ben was sitting against the back wall. Knees tucked in. Arms wrapped loosely around knees. A position that screamed vulnerable. Like a lost puppy. Or a little kid who has just been told his parents aren't coming home.

But they found the true story in Ben's eyes. A quality they had never seen in his.

His eyes were glazed and held a dead quality. Almost as if he had given up on living life. And in that moment they knew. Ben was already dead on the inside. Staring into them, they realized that the last time they had seen those eyes had been on the late Alex Rider. Emphasis on late. They knew it was only a matter of time before he too succumbed to the final door closing and left this world.

After a few moments of silence he finally spoke without looking at them, "You're four days too late."

Snake was the one who spoke the thoughts of the soldiers, "Too late for Cub, or too late for you?"

Ben didn't answer. For they all knew the truth. Ben was too far gone. And there was nothing they could do about it. There was one coal left on the fire. One dwindling link to life. A link so small that Ben could only tell it was there by his heartbeat. But even that had begun to slow.

Not even seeing his rescuers had added a coal or stick to the fire. It was just too late. Everyone's end must come at some point in time. Some sooner than others.

One coal sitting on a pile of ashes. That was all that remained.


	20. AN

A/N: Hey guys. So some people had been reviewing me before to explain more about Alex's death and whatnot. I of course was like, 'no guys. You get what you get. I explained it perfectly fine and in detail.'

But….I just realized that while I had written the chapter on Alex's death, somehow it never actually made it to being published (for some reason it was uploaded but not published)….so the actual chapter 16 that you guys missed is now up. You can go back and read it now.

I'm really sorry about this….please don't kill me. Just enjoy the fact that you get it.


	21. Epilogue

**A/N: And here it is! The final chapter! YAY!**

**This is not a new chapter….it was loaded before, but somehow disappeared. Sorry if anyone got excited for a moment. **

Epilogue:

Ben and K-Unit were making their way back to the rendezvous point when they got the call over the radio, "Come in Wolf. This is Lion."

"Wolf speaking. What is it?"

"We uh, kinda found some note written on the wall."

"Written on the wall?"

"Yea, Wolf. In blood."

K-Unit could not help but shiver at the very thought of it.

"And what does this note say?"

"Well, Wolf, it seems to be written for Ben. But I have no clue what it means."

"Read it," Wolf commanded Lion, the unit leader of J-Unit.

"Ok. It says, 'Ben. Ryttere er overlevende.' I don't know. It doesn't make sense."

Ben had seemed to snap out of his daze at the message, "It's Danish for…No! It can't be!"

With that statement Ben turned around and started sprinting down the hallways. Wolf chased close after. He had been the only one to see what had entered Ben's eyes as he mentally translated the statement. It had been hope.

(PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK)

K-Unit found Ben madly searching through drawers in an office.

"Fox? What does Ryt-RytRytee- I give up. What did the message translate to?" Snake asked while they watched the man.

Fox waved a hand distractedly, "Just something that one of the guards said to Alex while I thought he thought that I was asleep. Apparently he knew that I was awake."

"Yea, but what does it mean?"

"Riders are survivors. I think he was trying to tell me that Alex is actuall-Here it is!"

Ben had pulled out a folder and after skimming the contents had become even more animated, "He's alive! Alex is alive!" Ben fairly shouted.

"What? Where is he?" Eagle questioned. It was the first time he had spoken since learning about Cub's apparent death.

"He's at some other compound. That's why there's no guards left here. They've completely moved. They heard the SAS was coming and so they knew that they needed to make sure you wouldn't go after Cub. That's why they faked his death and left me here instead of just killing me!"

The unit took a minute to digest all of this information.

"Well, where is he then?" Tiger demanded, wanting to save the kid from excessive amounts of harm.

Ben's face fell, "I don't know. This is the only file that has any information whatsoever. It doesn't list a location. But we'd better find it soon."

"Why's that?" Snake asked, wondering if there was some other reason besides getting him out of Scorpia's hold.

Ben's eyes looked slightly panicked as he looked at them, "because they want to wipe his memories. So that he doesn't remember us. They're going to turn him into some sort of killing machine for them. And he'll do it willingly because he knows nothing else."

Four pairs of eyes widened as they digested this information. It was Wolf who quoted one of the MI6 agents that had come for some training at Brecon Beacons. It had been a high level agent and someone who had personally worked with Alex before.

"'For whomever holds a Rider willingly in their possession has the power to rule the world.'"

(PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK PAGE BREAK)

It was two weeks later when the location was finally found. Although so much time had passed, Ben was confident that they'd still be able to rescue Alex in time.

"After all," Ben had said, "Even if they have started brainwashing him, it hasn't been enough time for him to fully turn. He'll still have most of his memories."

And so they had searched high and low for two weeks before having a final breakthrough. Which led them to the disaster that followed hence.

The SAS had just arrived at the compound and were on the edge of the surrounding woods about 100 yards away from the building.

And just as they were about to move in and attack, Ben's cell phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Ben?"

"ALEX?"

"Yea, it's me. I just wanted to tell you that…well…whatever happens, Ben, it's not your fault. So don't go blaming yourself for the rest of your life. Promise me you'll live life to the fullest you would've."

"What? Nevermind. We can talk about this later. Listen. The SAS has surrounded the building you're in. We're coming to save you. So just hang tight-"

"No, Ben. Too much blood will be shed. I won't have that. Not for me. I just called to say-well- you were an amazing partner and adoptive dad. One day, when you have kids of your own, you're going to be a great dad. Promise me you'll keep on living. Ok?"

"What are you talking about, Alex? What do you mean?"

"Just promise me."

"…sure Alex. I promise to keep on living. But why?"

"Just-nevermind. There's not enough time."

"Not enough time until what?"

"I'm sorry, Ben. You deserved better than a kid like me. Good-bye Ben."

Horror filled Ben as he finally realized what Alex meant and what he was doing.

"NO! ALEX! You can't do this!"

"I can and I will. It's the only way. Say good-bye to K-Unit for me."

Before Ben could protest further, the dial tone rang in his ear, telling him that Alex had hung up on him.

He turned around and started racing towards the building.

Wolf swore and started chasing after Ben, not knowing what had gotten into the man. And just as he reached Ben, they were thrown to the ground. The two of them could only gaze in horror as they watched the building blow up.

"ALLLLEEEEXXXXX!" Ben screamed filled with grief. He got up and started running towards the building, hoping to be able to find Alex alive in the wreckage.

Wolf, being the closest to Ben, once more chased Ben and tackled him to the ground. There was nothing he wanted more than to go and try to save Cub, but he knew it was too late for him. And there was no way he was losing Fox as well as Cub.

Ben fought against Wolf's grip and almost got free a few times. But Wolf held on tight. He was literally holding on for the life of his friend.

Ben was too filled with grief to see reason, and Wolf wondered how he was going to be able to convince the man to leave.

A medic from one of the units ran up to Wolf and grabbed Ben's arm. Wolf had no clue what he was doing until he saw the needle slip out of Ben's arm. Wolf nodded, grateful to the medic. Ben's struggles weakened as the drug took effect. He whispered one last "Alex" before succumbing to the sedative.

Wolf picked up his unconscious comrade before following the medic back to the woods and on to where their vehicles were parked. No one looked back at the collapsed wreckage. No one would have any issues with Scorpia anymore. Alex had sacrificed his life to make sure of that.

Not a single soldier looked back. But if one had, they might've noticed the lone figure stumbling into the woods a quarter of the way around the building. But no one did. And the figure remained left alone.

**Sequal = Caught in the Act!**


End file.
